OCTOBER 8TH, 1927
OCTOBER 8TH, 1927
[p. 157] MY DEAR BROTHER, The burial of the Lord Jesus is clearly — from 1 Corinthians 15: 4 — an integral part of the glad tidings, and I believe it to be connected with the “until thou return to the ground” of the divine sentence in Genesis 3: 19. Man, after the order of Adam, was not only to die, but to “return to the ground”. He was taken out of it, and now — having become a fallen and sinful creature — he would return to it. How marked and explicit is the extent of the divine judgment! It reminds man of his origin, and shows him that he has by sin forfeited his whole status with God as a creature, so that he goes back by the judgment of God to the ground from which he was taken. His returning to the ground does not come in merely in an incidental way; it is definitely part of the divine sentence on the fallen man.
Hence the Lord says, “For even as Jonas was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, thus shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights”, Matthew 12: 40. And in Ephesians 4: 9 we read, “But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”. The Lord Jesus has not only died, but He has been in the heart of the earth. He has descended into the lower parts of the earth. I believe this to have direct reference to the sentence upon the fallen man. The Holy One of God has taken up in infinite grace, and for the glory of God, the whole condition of the fallen man, and the sentence passed upon that man. He has taken it up vicariously, though altogether free personally — as we well know — from the sin which He bore sacrificially, and from the penalties attaching to that sin. But He has been made sin sacrificially, and He has died, and He has also been buried.
The first man was “out of the earth, made of dust”, but that man fell and came under penalties, one of which was that he should return to the ground from out of which he was taken. Now the Second Man out of heaven has taken up in grace those penalties that as the Last Adam He might be a quickening Spirit. He has died for our sins; He has been made sin for us; He has become subject in grace to all that had passed upon us by reason of sin. And in the full accomplishment of this for the glory of God, and to secure blessing for us, He has descended into the lower parts of the earth.
[p. 158] This is as definitely revealed as any other part of His blessed and perfect work.
The consideration of this becomes the basis in our souls of the understanding of those most important statements of Holy Scripture — “We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life”, Romans 6: 4; “buried with him in baptism”, Colossians 2: 12. It seems to me that these scriptures clearly intimate that the burial of Christ presents a position in which He has been found, through infinite grace, that had in view the penalty of Genesis 3 on the one hand, and on the other our accepting that penalty as carried out in His blessed Person so that we might be able to take the ground of being buried with Him. It was part of what was vicariously undergone by Him that we might be able — while still alive upon the earth — to take the ground of burial with Him. For baptism clearly contemplates not only death but burial. That He was most blessedly perfect in all — in life, in death, in burial, in resurrection — is clearly evident to all who are divinely taught. He was God’s Holy and Anointed One. But death and burial were man’s portion as fallen, and Christ entered into them on man’s behalf, thus maintaining what was due to God and the penalty which He had pronounced on the fallen creature, but making death and burial available as a way of blessing in grace for men.
The more clearly we see the nature of the penalty, and the full and blessed way in which it has been taken up by Christ, the more shall we be prepared intelligently to occupy the ground on which our baptism has set us. One feels how good it would be for us all — for all Christians — to realise the solemnity of the sentence which has divinely passed upon us as connected with the first and fallen man. Our place and status are completely forfeited; we are sentenced to death and burial. There is but one door of hope for us, and that is that God’s Anointed has died for us and has been buried. Both these things speak of the penalty under which we lay. But resurrection speaks of the glorious power of God acting because of what Christ was, and it speaks, indeed, of the power that was inherent in Christ Himself. Now we can take the ground in liberty and joy of having died with Christ and being buried with Him. We can accept the termination in death, and the [p. 159] complete disappearance in burial, of the man who came under divine sentence in Genesis 3. We have learned that naturally we are of that man, and partake of his moral features, and lie under his sentence. But we have seen marvellous actings of grace and love on the part of God in sending His Son to take up the whole condition and liabilities of the fallen man. We rejoice in the riches of His mercy and the greatness of His salvation. We come through repentance into accord with God, and accept His sentence of death and burial. Not one vestige of the fallen man — that is, of myself as of Adam — could be preserved alive. That man must die and be buried, and as vicariously represented in the One who took his place in wondrous grace, he has died and been buried. That man, with all the moral features which characterise him, has been terminated under the eye of God in the death of Christ, and has gone entirely out of view in the burial of Christ, never to be taken account of again, according to the true grace of God, save as dead and buried. This is known to those who are called of God, and born anew, and who have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the present truth, and it lies at the very threshold of Christian profession, for those who are baptised are buried with Christ in figure. The sentence on the fallen man has been executed, and we accept this, and are responsible to maintain consistency with it. We live through Him who bore the sentence, who is now in resurrection a quickening Spirit, and whose Spirit we have received so that we might participate in the life of the Last Adam.
The different expressions, “crucified with Christ”, “died with Christ”, “buried with him”, each set forth a different aspect of the way in which what we were as of the fallen man has been dealt with vicariously when Christ took it up by the grace of God. “Crucified” sets forth, on the one hand, man’s estimate of all that was precious in the sight of God as seen in that Blessed One — an intense exposure of the true character of the man after the flesh — but it also sets forth on God’s part the public condemnation and execution of that man. To have “died with Christ” signifies the termination of that order of man morally. But “buried with him” intimates that all connected with that man has disappeared from view, never to be reinstated. Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father. Everything of the fallen man having gone in His death and burial, nothing remains in [p. 160] Him risen but what corresponds with the glory of the Father. And “newness of life” is to characterise the walk of those who “have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death”.
Outwardly things are not yet changed. We are still in flesh and blood, and bear the image of the one made of dust, and actually we may die and be buried. So that 1 Corinthians 15 is most important as showing how death will ultimately be swallowed up in victory, and that God has even now given us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ. But spiritually the believer is privileged to know what it is to be dead and buried with Christ, and to walk in newness of life as in Romans 6, or as risen with Christ in Colossians. I have given you what comes before me in connection with your enquiry. If it meets your exercise at all, or there is any help in it, I shall be thankful.
With love in the Lord Jesus,
Yours affectionately in Him,
October 8th, 1927.